Liberal: State of the Union: can president back up his talk?

With last week's State of the Union address, President Obama described a nation of bridled optimism, as well as his plans to aid its slow rise back to normalcy, and we got a peek at the campaign to come.

The president came out swinging, reminding the nation he had, in fact, killed one of the most wanted men of all time. It was a smart move, leading with his only achievement that would guarantee applause from both sides of the aisle. I found it disheartening.

I sometimes, naively, try to convince myself we are slowly crawling out of the bloodthirsty pit that we dug ourselves after 9/11. With the withdrawal from Iraq and the winding down of operations in Afghanistan, I like to think our paranoia-fueled hunger for war is slowly fading.

Those hopes were somewhat encouraged with the president's plea for a peaceful resolution in Iran, but when our leader begins a speech that is supposed to encourage optimism with a reminder of how we had managed to murder someone, it simply reminds me we are not quite as evolved as we'd like to think.

But that complaint is rooted in idealism, and our nation is anything but ideal at the moment. I was pleased to see the president didn't shy away from this fact. Although the overall tone of the speech was optimistic, as we would expect it to be, he didn't shy away from showing some of the nation's less attractive aspects.

When talking about education, he was not afraid to show a system with a ridiculously high cost that turns out some of the least well-rounded graduates in the world. He acknowledged that the old paradigm, encourage by the failed No Child Left Behind program, of teaching children to pass tests is a failed method.

He also tied the issue to immigration law, pointing out we shouldn't be kicking out those who chose this country to get their education. What could be more obvious than allowing those we train in our universities to go to work for our economy upon graduation?

The most important issue of the president's speech, and possibly of our time, is the inequality that currently defines our nation. He stated the only way to ensure a reversal of the slow dissolution of our middle class is to enact change that would guarantee an equal playing field for all citizens.

This means a tax code and financial laws that are not weighted for the wealthiest Americans. The GOP, of course, will call this class warfare, but the growing income gap is weakening this country, and it will undoubtedly be a recurring theme in the president's re-election campaign.

The most disappointing aspect of the speech was his failure to emphasize the need for sustainable energy. Maybe it's the fatigue of working with a do-nothing Congress, but he seems to have given up on this issue that was so vital to his election campaign. In fact, he seems to have reversed his position, giving the Democratic equivalent of the GOP's "Drill Baby Drill" agenda.

This is a sad mistake.

Overall, the President's speech was everything you would expect in both a State of the Union address and the opening volley in a sure-to-be heated campaign.